Air New Zealand flight NZ289 was denied permission to land in China..

Air New Zealand flight NZ289 was denied permission to land in China because the operating aircraft is not being in CAAC’s database of those cleared to land in the country.

The Boeing 787-9 Reg.ZK-NZQ flight NZ289 with 270 passengers departed Auckland at 11:59pm on Saturday (10 Feb, 2019), and after four and hours’ flight time, the plane u-turned around over Papua New Guinea back to Auckland and landed around 6 a.m on Sunday.

After four hours into flight, the pilot informed the passengers that “Chinese authorities had not given this plane permission to land”

According to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), all aircraft must be registered with the authorities and be in the CAAC database before flying in, out or through China airspace. The registration process takes a minimum of five working days but can take several weeks.

Flight permits are required by all aircraft to overfly, land or make a technical stop in any country’s airspace.

The Air New Zealand B787-9, with the registration ZK-NZQ, has been flying with the airline for five months, but has not been registered with CAAC.